Matt Tunseth

Civilian crime fighting efforts continue to expand in Chugiak-Eagle River, where Anchorage Assembly member Amy Demboski is spearheading a new coordinated neighborhood watch program to supplement the work being done by the five-person Birchwood Community Patrol.

“I shred everything,” Frey told the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber of Commerce during its biweekly luncheon Nov. 15 at the Eagle River Ale House.

Frey is a vice president at Northrim Bank, where he’s in charge of security and business continuity. It’s a job that puts Frey in constant contact with some of the worst actors on the Internet — and there’s a lot of them out there.

“The threats that we face are constantly changing,” Frey told the chamber.

People in Chugiak really, really don’t like a proposal to allow for higher density housing on a parcel of land located near the McDonald Center in Eagle River.

At its Nov. 16 meeting, the Chugiak Community Council renewed its objection to the much-maligned proposal by the Heritage Land Bank board of directors, which will go before the municipal Planning and Zoning Commission Dec. 11.

“Heritage Land Bank is proceeding along just as they planned,” said Sandy Quimby, who has been an opponent of the proposal since she first learned of it more than a year ago.

An advisory board representing Chugiak-Eagle River area community councils renewed its objection to plans by the Heritage Land Bank to change the allowable housing density on 92 acres of municipal owned land in Eagle River.

At its Saturday, Oct. 28 meeting at the Eagle River Town Center, the Chugiak-Eagle River Advisory Board voted unanimously to oppose any changes to increase housing density in the Carol Creek Site Specific Land Use Plan.

When was the last time you checked your phone? If you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance you’re doing it right now — more than 60 percent of Star readers now get their news from a mobile device; if not, it’s likely you looked at the device in the last hour — studies show Americans check their devices dozens to hundreds of times per day.

The use of screened devices has become ingrained in modern society, and that’s especially true among teens, who according to the Pew Research Center send an average 30 text messages a day.

Dozens of local wrestlers were among hundreds of athletes who packed the Menard Center in Wasilla over the weekend for the Lancer Smith Memorial Wrestling Tournament, the state’s largest.

With wrestling on eight mats and tournaments for varsity, junior varsity, middle school and girls’ wrestlers, the tournament attracted teams from as far away as Kiana in Northwest Alaska and Ketchikan in Southeast.

On his own time and his own dime, an Eagle River man has recently started driving around town as part of a one-man community patrol effort.

Cliff Cook began making the rounds as the new Eagle River Community Patrol Saturday, Nov. 4. Over the course of his first week, Cook said he covered more than 100 miles over 13 hours spread across five days of driving around Eagle River.